


Wish Fulfillment

by muzivitch



Category: X -エックス- | X/1999
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-28
Updated: 2014-03-28
Packaged: 2018-01-17 08:13:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,035
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1380403
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/muzivitch/pseuds/muzivitch
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sumeragi Subaru is tired of wishes. He's even more tired of mind games.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Wish Fulfillment

The state of relations between the Clan Sumeragi and the Sakurazukamori had varied over the centuries, but it was generally safe to state that rarely - if ever - had they ever included something like civilized tea dates in the shadow of Tokyo Tower.

But then, Subaru thought as he sipped his tea and politely listened to his cousin Makoto. the situation in which they found themselves was somewhat unprecedented.

"You should do what you consider to be best," he told his cousin gravely. "I can advise you, but I am no longer the Clan Head. The decision must rest with you.

"Is that what you’re doing?" Makoto asked. Makoto was older than he had been, Subaru thought, when this particular mantle of responsibility had been draped over his shoulders. But still young. In university in Kyoto, close to their ancestral home. The Sumeragi had been reluctant to allow their children to move to Tokyo since it had gone so…badly for Subaru and Hokuto, almost ten years before.

Maybe it was actually ten years now. Subaru wasn’t tracking dates on the calendar. It seemed pointless.

His lips tipped up at one corner. It wasn’t even a smile; those had been rare for a long time, and were nearly nonexistent now. But there was a touch of sardonic amusement to the expression. A touch of Seishirou, perhaps, which surely was unsurprising. The man’s eye was only the most obvious trait Subaru had taken on.

Had he ever been  _really_  so young as Sumeragi Makoto? He wondered to himself. Of course, he knew the answer to both that and the question Makoto had asked. They were one and the same.

"Yes."

He lingered after Makoto had left. He had places to be - the responsibilities of his new position were more than he’d really expected them to be, the Sakurazuka as much of a strange clan as the Sumeragi were - and while the Dragons of Earth were not as fond of organized meeting as the Dragons of Heaven, he hadn’t bothered to put in an appearance in weeks. Eventually, someone would come looking.

He was not surprised when a shadow fell over his table, and he glanced up to meet Monou Fuuma’s amused stare. “Monou-san,” he said. “To what do I owe the pleasure?”

"Is it a pleasure?" Fuuma asked curiously as he flopped into the chair across from Subaru. "You don’t take pleasure in much. It’s a shame."

"Really." Subaru shifted his hand up to slide his sunglasses off his face. Like Seishirou he’d taken to wearing them to avoid drawing more attention to his mismatched eyes - though his were a different kind of mismatched than Seishirou’s.

They could blame - or thank - Fuuma for that.

"Is that the wish fulfillment fantasy we are going to play out today?" He asked in a bland tone. "Teach the Sakurazukamori how to take joy out of each and every day?"

"No, I just wanted ice cream. It’s a warm day, don’t you think?" Fuuma’s tone was breezy and light, and Subaru had the sudden thought that Hokuto would have adored him as much as she’d adored Seishirou.

"Unfortunate that you’ve chosen a tea shop," was all he said. "The ice cream is on the other side of the tower." Conveniently far from him, though he supposed he could get up and leave. 

He wasn’t sure, exactly, what it was he didn’t like about Fuuma. He was full of bravado but then he was a teenage boy; Kamui was just as full of bravado, and Subaru liked him. He was sympathetic to him, and he’d allowed a closeness with Kamui that had been verboten since Hokuto’s death.

"You don’t like me," Fuuma said suddenly, and Subaru paused with his teacup halfway to his lips. That was it, he thought. It wasn’t the teenage bravado. It wasn’t even the cockiness. It was the combination of the two, blended with the little games Fuuma liked to play. Mind games.

"No," he admitted. Not carelessly, precisely, though it was clear that Subaru didn’t have much care for how Fuuma took it. "I don’t really see that it matters. Really, I would think that you would enjoy the fact that don’t."

A flash of confusion seemed to pass over Fuuma’s face, like a single wisp of cloud blowing through the sky. Then his more customary - amused, smiling - expression settled on his face again. It made Subaru wonder what Fuuma’s genuine face would look like. He hadn’t known him before he’d become one of the two Kamuis.

"I don’t think anyone wants to be hated, Sakurazukamori," he said, leaning back. "Well, perhaps your Seishirou-san. I think he found it amusing more than anything else.

"Indeed," Subaru said. "And you are not Seishirou. Nor do I hate you." Sometimes Subaru wasn’t sure he was capable of that level of emotion any longer. He’d been detached from the world since Hokuto, and since Seishirou…Rainbow Bridge had not improved matters.

"No one wants to be hated," he repeated, tilting his head to one side. There was suddenly, something uncomfortably incisive about his expression, as if he’d roused himself out of his detachment to focus. It was a simple thing, and Fuuma had been near flippant about it, and yet…

And yet making Shirou Kamui hate him had been his goal for months. Unless you bought into the idea that becoming the Kamui of the Dragons of Earth had broken and maddened Monou Fuuma. Subaru never had, even when he had stood on the other side of the conflict. He’d seen madness.

"Interesting," he said, setting his cup down. "I wonder when you’ll achieve what no one wants."

This time, a storm seemed to pass over Fuuma’s face, and settle in for a few moments longer than he might have liked. “What do you mean?” He asked.

This time, Subaru did smile as he stood up and brushed a leaf off his crimson coat. “You know what I mean,” he said gently as he set enough money down to pay for his and his cousin’s abandoned tea.

"You should get the Rocky Road ice cream," he added as he turned to go. "It was my sister’s favorite from that shop."


End file.
